


Love Is Like Jazz

by die_traumerei



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Comfort, Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Music, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23429929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/die_traumerei/pseuds/die_traumerei
Summary: Aziraphale used to play piano, but doesn't anymore. Crowley aims to change that.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 114





	Love Is Like Jazz

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt on Tumblr. Title is from Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs.

“Oh, I haven't played in centuries,” Aziraphale protested.

“So?” Crowley patted beside himself on the piano bench. “'s like riding a bike, angel, you never forget.”

“When did you get a piano, again?” Aziraphale asked, trying to buy time.

Crowley shrugged. “Yesterday? I mean, I wasn't doing anything else with the room.”

“...Quite.” Aziraphale finally sat beside him, and reached out a tentative hand, his fingers falling into a simple chord. The piano was beautiful, and made a beautiful sound that reverberated around the otherwise-barren room. “Oh,” he said softly.

Of course he remembered how to play. He had never forgotten. Even when he had stopped playing, his fingers found the chords on the edge of a table, or against his thigh. It had been a nervous tic for awhile, until someone had noticed.

It was no longer a nervous tic. Or anything at all.

Crowley could play a little, so he claimed, and he reached out and played a second chord. Oh, the evil serpent – he'd left it unfinished, so that Aziraphale _had_ to play a third chord, or learn to live with the sensation of his teeth itching.

He played, perhaps, a little more firmly than was warranted, and shot Crowley a suspicious look.

“D'you remember...?” Crowley started a simple piece, a little etude they had once played together in a sunlit salon in Italy.

“No,” Aziraphale said and got up and walked across the room, his hands tightly gripped together.

“Oi, angel!” Crowley chased after him. “You do! I know you do!”

“I don't play anymore, Crowley,” Aziraphale snapped. “Don't ask me to.”

“But you want to,” Crowley said, because no one had ever told him to stop pushing, not even when God herself flung him out of heaven. Aziraphale was so in love it hurt.

“It doesn't matter what I want,” he said stiffly. “I'm not very good anyway. Everyone always said.”

“I didn't! And who cares? It's fun,” Crowley said. “And it matters a lot. What you want,” he added.

Aziraphale breathed deeply, since it seemed to calm the humans, and squeezed his hands together some more.

“Zira.” Crowley held his hands out. “You're safe. No one will do whatever horrible thing they threatened you with, or _did_ to you.”

“I know,” Aziraphale said tightly.

“Give me your hands?” Crowley asked softly.

Gentle. For a demon, he was so gentle.

No, that wasn't right, wasn't fair. Crowley was just...gentle. Demon didn't come into it. Aziraphale took another deep breath and reached for Crowley. He was safe. If someone  _did_ threaten to break his hands or take music from his heart again, Crowley would help Aziraphale defend. And probably destroy whoever had done the threatening on top of that.

“It's earthly music. Angels had no place loving it.”

Crowley snorted. “Someone should have told Bach that, would've saved a lot of trouble and gloomy organ stuff.”

“Crowley! How _dare_ you call his masterpieces _gloomy_!” Yes, Aziraphale was being purposely shocked out of his stupor, but honestly, what a thing to say!

“They're gloomy.” Crowley had his hands around Aziraphale's now, and was massaging his palms with his thumbs, soothing the skin where Aziraphale's nails had bitten in. Slowly, he started to lead Aziraphale across the room again. “Not all of his stuff, mind, there's a reason we got a bunch of the Bach's down in Hell. But really, angel, about the time you're at hour four of St. Matthew's Passion, don't you feel a bit gloomy?”

“Crowley.” Aziraphale blinked. “You were literally _at Gethsemane with me_. Gloomy is rather the _point_.”

Crowley made one of his wordless noises that served to ask 'but  _is_ it?'.

While Aziraphale was rolling his eyes and huffing a sigh, Crowley was walking them to the piano bench and sitting down.

“Actual Gethsemane wasn't as gloomy as he made it seem,” he held forth, settling his right hand on the keys and playing a jazzy little run. All the greats had gone to Hell, of course, and the jazz club was the greatest to ever exist. Too bad the only thing they ever played was that one riff that never resolved.

Aziraphale set his left hand down and played the counterpoint.

Crowley smiled. “That's awfully modern of you.”

“I'm just full of surprises,” Aziraphale said dryly.

Crowley shrugged, looped an arm around his shoulders and started to play.

Aziraphale listened for a moment. He might not have been much of a one for bebop, but this old, smoky, bluesy jazz? He could hear where the moments between the notes Crowley was playing went, and a few seconds later improvise a counterpoint, and hah, take that you old serpent. You wanted me to have fun? I'll have bloody fun, with no one to stop me.

He felt Crowley startle, recover, and start tapping out a beat with one foot while they caught notes off each other, melodies talking, and what had  _started_ as 'Take the A Train' turned into something wild and woolly, as they made music together at Crowley's piano, the two of them sat side-by-side in the sunlight, filling the room with song.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Also -- when Crowley mentions the neverending, never-resolved riff in Hell, I stole that from a joke about a specific jazz song but I cannot for the life of me remember which one. If anyone knows it, _please_ let me know, so I can rewrite the in-story joke to not suck!
> 
> [dietraumerei.tumblr.com](http://dietraumerei.tumblr.com)


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